Go the Distance
by Chicago
Summary: Siri goes on the mission of a life time without her master Adi to guide her. On this mission she must gather her strength and courage for the challanges she must face. Where will her journey take her and what will she learn along the way? UPDATED!! R&R!


Peace over anger.  
  
Honor over hate.  
  
Strength over fear.  
  
Siri sighed as she looked at the large doors in front of her apprehensively. Those words held no comfort today. Adi was in the med- center and Siri was supposed to be meeting with the council. Every Jedi knows to go before the council in a calm collective state, but still she felt completely tense. She took one deep breath after another trying to calm and collect herself. She glanced up as a hand wrapped itself around hers and gave a squeeze. She smiled slightly at Obi-Wan. Knowing that he and his master, Qui-Gon would be there helped her relax a bit.  
  
The door silently slid open letting them know that the council was ready to hear her report. Siri took one last deep breath and walked through the doors as composed as she could. She took strength from the fact that she wasn't alone and that Yoda was the current head of the council. His compassionate way of listening and comforting advice, despite how cryptic, always calmed and soothed her. When she entered she noticed the brief, but never the less present, looks of surprise on the council member's face.  
  
"We are glad to see you all back safely…" Mace Windu paused, once again looking at the Siri's forever marred face. "We are ready for the report of how Adi Gallia came to be in such a serious condition." Siri took one more deep breath and thought about the information that had been running through her mind for the past few days. "When Adi and I were sent to the planet of Balindk to oversee peace talks…"  
  
@~^~~~  
  
There was little space to do anything on this shuttle, and Adi was taking her shift sleeping in the back. Neither Adi nor Siri was willing to leave the controls alone when traveling through areas like this. The planets in the system had always been at almost constant warfare. So travelers had to watch for pirates, small fighter factions, and space- mines. Especially the space-mines. Adi walked into the cockpit nodding her head and looking at the control panel. "It looks as though we don't have much farther to go. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to get off this shuttle and walk around. It is comfortable, but to cramped for my taste." Siri smiled. Adi was never afraid to speak her mind, as long the situation was appropriate.  
  
On their way to the surface Adi quickly briefed Siri one last time on their objective. They were to observe the talks at the System Conference and only interfere if the talks would lead to more violence. For the first week the talks went smoothly, however after that the arguing began. It took nearly a month to make as much progress as they had in the first week. Even with the arguing there was no apparent threat of violence, until that fateful message…  
  
There was a particularly noisy argument going on when a messenger arrived informing the ambassador from Falirn, one of the closer neighbors to Balindk, that over the past few days over 300 children had vanished. That was only the beginning of the problems that emerged that week other planets began reporting statistics similar to those. When the Jedi council learned of this they gave us instructions to keep alert and keep them informed. The Conference representatives finally had a unifying goal to work towards. They formally asked the Jedi council for help and we were asked to help bring the children back. Siri was thrilled at the thought of not having to sit in those discussions anymore. As the investigation began Adi and Siri gathered a great deal of possible leads that all hit dead- ends. There were plenty of clues; the only problem was none of them seemed to fit together. They also had to battle to get help from the governments. The planets were all beginning to blame each other and refusing to help unless the Jedi did not offer help to another planet. It was exhausting, but finally they received a hint from a drunken man on a street corner. It wasn't the most reliable source, but after considering his cryptic message they were able to piece together most of the information that they had acquired.  
  
It was a startling thought, but it seemed that a large number of companies were becoming involved in the slave trade outside the Galactic Republic. The children were being taken so that they could be sold. Luckily there was a lull in the kidnappings in this system, but Adi and Siri got information that the slave dealers were hitting other systems as well. Adi and Siri began the chase. They followed the kidnappers to two other systems before finally battling them. It was there that Adi made the miscalculation that nearly cost her life. It was there that one of the men responsible dealt a fierce blow across Siri's cheek with a vibro-ax. Adi was still in the sick bay unconscious and Siri would forever bear the scar of that fight.  
  
@~^~~~  
  
The council sat silently for a long time after she finished. The silence in the room was almost tangible, and felt thick to Siri as she struggled to keep control of her emotions. She had always been able to be strong and have complete control, but she and Adi had grown close, and even though she knew that Adi would be all right she was still quite concerned about her master. Master Yoda and Mace Windu asked her a few more questions before finally dismissing her to speak with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. They had not been apart of the mission, but Yoda knew that any Padawan felt very nervous when appearing before the council alone, especially when that Padawan's master had been injured or they had to report bad news. Siri had had to do all of these things.  
  
Upon leaving the council's chambers she headed for the Room of A Thousand Fountains. She needed to calm her spirit. The memories of that mission had badly shaken her and meditation would do her some good. She hadn't had time to truly reflect on the mission. She remained there, next to one of the more secluded fountains until lights out. She had missed the evening meal, but found that she had no desire to eat anything. She simply headed for her chambers and fell almost instantly into a fitful sleep that provided her with little actual rest.  
  
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Hello everybody! First I'd like to thank Caitty Lin, Nunashi's DreamBerry, me, dreamberry, PadawanObiWan, neko-chan, Akima, and Tiger Dauthi for reviewing! Thanks for your comments and encouragement. Um.. Oh, second, I can't promise how often this will be updated since my muse has been very unreliable recently. I have the next part started and about a million better things to do this weekend so I'll probably get to write more (I write best when procrastinating…). Let's see. It would also be nice to here suggestions about where y'all want this to go. I know basically what's gonna happen, but if anyone has anything they really want to see it may just make it in here ^-^. Thanks for sticking with me for so long! BTW, has anyone started the Jedi Quest books by Jude Watson? I'm still on the prologue, but dang it looks good! Hasta!  
  
~Morwen (aka. Nanashi-kun), and her muse Dae~ 


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